Nørgaard et al. Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine 2015, 23(Suppl 1):A49 http://www.sjtrem.com/supplements/23/S1/A49

MEETINGABSTRACT Open Access Diagnostic tracks in emergency departments match discharge diagnoses fairly well Birgitte Nørgaard1*, Christian B Mogensen2,3, Lars S Teglbjærg4, Mikkel Brabrand5, Annmarie T Lassen6 From 6th Danish Emergency Medicine Conference Odense, Denmark. 20-21 November 2014

Background use of tracks in more than 50% of cases. With stays Patients arrive in the emergency departments with symp- between 2 and 5 days, significantly more patients were toms and problems rather than with diagnoses. Since assigned an acceptable diagnostic track compared to 2008, the categorisation and subsequent treatment of shorter or longer stays (p < 0.001). Younger patients patients in emergency departments in the Region of were more likely to be offered an acceptable track (p < Southern Denmark (RSD) have been based on presenting 0.001). No significant association was established symptoms. Quality and effectiveness is assumed to between comorbidity and assignment to an acceptable improve with acceptable diagnostic track assignment. diagnostic track. Fourteen diagnostic tracks covered 80% Our aim was to determine the degree to which of the included pathways. assigned diagnostic tracks matched clinically relevant discharge diagnoses. Conclusions We found that 68% of the included patients were Methods assigned an acceptable diagnostic track, and that about A descriptive cohort study of all patients assigned to a 80% of all acute pathways were covered by 14 diagnostic diagnostic track in the five emergency departments tracks. The studied emergency departments showed no between April 1st and June 30th 2013 was conducted. Data significant differences with respect to their success in were linked to data reported to the Danish National assigning patients to acceptable pathways. We suggest Patient Register. Using Delphi method we developed a further modification and refinement of the concept of quality standard to indicate assignment to an acceptable diagnostic tracks, followed by testing. diagnostic track (linkages between diagnostic tracks and discharge diagnosis). Authors’ details 1Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Results Denmark. 2Emergency Department, Aabenraa Hospital, Hospital of Southern 3 Of the identified 17,694 patient contacts leading to Jutland, Aabenraa, Denmark. Institute of Regional Health Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. 4Emergency Department, assignment to a diagnostic track, 16,543 were validated OUH Odense University Hospital, Svendborg, Denmark. 5Emergency as unique patient pathways. Patients’ mean age was 59.8 Department, Hospital of South West Jutland, Esbjerg, Denmark. 6Emergency years; mean length of stay was 3.2 days. The number of Department, OUH Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark. different discharge diagnoses used by emergency depart- Published: 16 July 2015 ments was 1,792; the corresponding number for hospital discharge was 2,030. All 40 diagnostic tracks offered by theregionwererepresented. Sixty-eight per cent had doi:10.1186/1757-7241-23-S1-A49 been assigned an acceptable diagnostic track (CI 67.2- Cite this article as: Nørgaard et al.: Diagnostic tracks in emergency 68.7). For 30 diagnostic tracks, we found appropriate departments match discharge diagnoses fairly well. Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine 2015 23(Suppl 1):A49.

* Correspondence: [email protected] 1Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © 2015 Nørgaard et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/ zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.